Playtest Network
Playtest Network Launch!
This week we’re launching a brand new initiative to help studios connect with more players: a way for you to promote your game to our community of playtesters interested in sharing feedback and helping developers build the games they’ll love.
Through a store-like experience with low friction signups, high quality players, and a free pay-it-forward model, we’re creating a new place for studios to safely experiment with discovery and market validation.
Playtester Community
We are building a community of active gamers across different game genres, regions, and platforms, of which the majority plays more than 15 hours a week, enjoys playing games with friends, and regularly buys things in free-to-play games.
The players are eager to try out new titles, join a game’s community, and help shape the games.
Playtest Promotion
Studios can opt-in to have FirstLook promote their playtests to this Playtester Community on our website and other channels. You can craft your Promo Card with key art, a trailer, game description, and optional additional call-to-actions.
Your game will then be featured on FirstLook.gg, our socials (280k followers), and pushed to Playtesters.
Low Friction Sign Up
FirstLook Playtesters can sign up for your playtest with less friction. When they visit your playtest signup, their verified email, Steam Account, and optional Discord will be pre-filled.
You can even remove all friction and let players join your waitlist with just one click!
Data Sharing
Once a player signs up for your game using FirstLook’s Network, they are truly yours. Players will go through your own onboarding and have to accept your click-through agreements, NDAs, and other policies. They agree with FirstLook transferring their Steam, Email, Discord, and other data to you, and are made aware that their playtime activity and engagement in your playtest is shared back with FirstLook.
We use those signals to curate, qualify, and reward players for actively participating. We’ll also make these signals, and more data about FirstLook Playtesters available to you.
Pay It Forward
Just like any other waitlist sign up, FirstLook Playtester Signups don’t count towards your usage until you invite or engage with them. There’s no limit to the amount of signups you can get through FirstLook’s network, and promoting your game is free.
We want to offer a safe place for pre-release games to experiment with their positioning, and scout their initial community.
Once you opt-in to promoting your game, we start showing a small banner on your players’ dashboard promoting the playtester community. This way, you help your fellow studios and the pool of players grow. For studios on the Free Plan we’ll always show the banner.
Gamescom
From Wednesday till Sunday we’re promoting the FirstLook Playtester Community at Gamescom! Our booth hosts seven studios using FirstLook and we’re trying out some new low friction features for in-person signups. If you’re there, make sure to drop by (Hall 10.2, Stand D043G).
